Fair Grove Boys’ Basketball came out on top in the Sparta Trojans’ Tournament after defeating Mansfield 64-59 on January 31st. The Eagles beat Class 5 Lebanon JV in their first game of bracket play and Hollister in the second game to lead them to the Championship game against Mansfield. Head Coach Tim Brown said, “I was glad we were able to play for and win a championship game. It was a really good step for our program.”

Being seeded first in the tournament, the first game for the Eagles was against number eight seed, Lebanon JV. The Eagles took a quick lead and kept it throughout the first half. With a lead of 47-21 at half-time, many players saw playing time during this game. Garrett Kesterson lead the Eagles in scoring with 19 points, but there were a total of 9 players who contributed to scoring for the Eagles against Lebanon. Fair Grove got “the W” against Lebanon with a final score of 79-53.

After beating Lebanon JV, Fair Grove was lead to their next competitor: Hollister. The Eagles had played Hollister earlier in the season, and came out with a 12 point victory. The first quarter was back and forth with scoring and kept close with a score of 20-16, but the Eagles were able to take a lead before half-time. The score at the half was 42-29. Fair Grove was able to maintain their lead throughout the rest of the game with four players in double digits: Evan Fullerton, 10 points; Kyle Cavanaugh, 12 points; Zane McCurry, 18 points; Garrett Kesterson, 15 points.  The final score of the Fair Grove-Hollister game was 73-51.

The final game of the tournament was against Mansfield. The Eagles took an early lead of 21-12 by pushing the ball up the court quickly, and trying to wear down their opponents. Cavanaugh explained, “We started off with a good lead by controlling the tempo of the game.” Kyle had 17 of his 19 points in the first half of the game to help Fair Grove keep a lead of 37-28 at half-time.

Garrett Kesterson was who the Eagles looked to for scoring opportunities in the second half while Mansfield was busy trying to shut down Cavanaugh.  Kesterson ended the night with 20 points, 16 of them coming from the second half. The Eagles had a hard time guarding Jacob Caruso who had 34 points for Mansfield, but Fair Grove still managed to fight hard and take the win with a final score of 64-59. Coach Brown stated, “When you do the little things right and play for and with your team, you can accomplish the big things.”